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D Oldroyd:

The comment about Russeller was made to reinforce the strength in depth that North Down have. You could easily have faced an even stronger XI than the one fielded.

Interesting debate about North Down 2s selection policy in the Junior Cup. Last year we (Woodvale 2s) played a North Down side in the JC that im convinced would win Section one. If memory serves the top 6 that day was.....N.Burns, A.Shields, D.Graham, A.Haire, J. Terrett, G.Patterson and they also had D.Kennedy , B.Adams and another young prospect in Carson in their team. (quite a side)

We lost by 15 runs, did we complain...not at all. I would much rather play a good team with good players than roll a team over and be home for 4pm... To be honest we probably should have won that game!

Bottom line is...the big teams have better players and a lot more of them and looking at NDs team at the weekend it probably could have had other non starred players in it.

Junior one teams haven't exactly been winning many Junior Cups recently....hopefully that will change this year!

Re: Editor

Fair enough regarding the 'top 12' comment, but to Section 2 and 3 teams he would be regarded as a fairly handy Premier League standard player.

I think the issue is the significance of the contribution the un-starred player made in the Junior Cup, and of those players in general in that competition. I am sure Drumaness would have been quite confident of winning against ND 2s with their regular 'Saturday' team.

I am not trying to pick on ND in particular, and certainly not on the player, as I am sure he is keen (as I am) to play as much cricket as he can. But surely it is understandable that lower Senior teams would be frustrated to lose out in their only cup competition when beaten largely by the performance of one or two Premier standard players dropping down?

Thanks for the responses.

Re Jeff Ohara: totally agree that with the strength and depth of north down, no matter who is starred, there is still gonna be class players eligible to play. But in picking 8, those playing representative cricket would be a good start. Your point regarding Neil Russell is pointless. If a player is dropped for the 1st XI, well of course he will be playing for the 2nd XI

Re Andrew H: I appreciate your honestly. You were well within your rights to play the strongest team within the rules however wrong they may be. I registered a mate of mine last week to try and make XI for the weekend. Although he is allowed to play in the league, he wasn't allowed to play against you guys in the cup - and he has never lifted a cricket bat in his life

Re Jonny Kennedy: Good luck with the game with Saintfield - don't think it's the same tho. They don't play in the challenge cup as well. For all the NCU statisticians out there- when was the last time (if ever) a player won the challenge cup and junior cup in the same season?

D.Oldroyd.

It's no more bizarre than playing against Senior League teams in the junior competition. Our club played a great game which we only managed to win by one run and our prize is a trip to Saintfield. I for one am relishing the challenge and im sure my team mates also feel the same way.

re my recent posting regarding the plethora of regulations - just back from Larne-v-Bangor. Different regs. again. That now makes 6 different sets of regulations so far this season _ and I haven't stood in any schools games!

Re: D.Oldroyd

Agreed. We were knocked out of the Junior Cup last year by a couple of Premier League players. In that scenario, there was a good reason why they were down with the 2s, but still doesn't make it any easier to take.

The system is open to abuse by all teams, but in my experience normally to enable the lower side to field a team when numbers are short. This shouldn't be the case with clubs like the one you mentioned, and should certainly not be permitted when the player is one of the top 12 in the union.

At least you can say you dismissed a Northern Knight, so well played.

D.Oldroyd: starring:

The starring system does a pretty good job at stopping clubs from unfairly 'loading' teams on days when higher teams aren't playing. Sure, it has been abused over the years but in this instance I don't think you have a valid gripe.

North Down are fortunate to have such a depth of talent and Drumaness were unlucky that their Junior Cup tie was played on a day that the NDCC 1st XI had no game.

Ali Shields is undoubtedly a great talent and thoroughly deserves his callup to the Knights. However, look at the North Down 1st XI and tell me who you would rather have been unstarred to make room for him the nominated 8 ?

Indeed, had Neil Russell not decided to join Instonians, having been dropped, Drumaness would likely have faced an opening pair of Shields and Russell.

Something seriously wrong with the NCU strarring system. How can a player who has just been named in the northern knights team play in the junior cup for his club's 2nd XI the day after playing for the 1st XI in the challenge cup. What is 'junior' about that?

The player and club in question will play in many cup competitions throughout the season whereas the junior cup is the only 50 over cup for teams in sections 2 and 3 yet we're expected to play against players of this calibre.

Any thoughts?

Played a game today against Dundrum 2nds and I would just like to thank them for a good game. Played in the right spirit, great bunch of lads and I wish them every success this season

George - the game was due to be at Shaw's Bridge. With Strabane having so far to travel it was a tricky call to make and one we had to make early given the distances and travel time involved. Bringing them all the way to Belfast for there to be no play would have seemed senseless - especially given last year in the same competition they travelled all the way down and after sitting about for a couple of hours we had a bowl out anyway.

Even with a lot of work I don't think we would have got the place playable last weekend; it was just in that bad a condition with some serious deep puddles on the outfield especially not to mention the square.

I just feel there is an argument to be made that the games in the competition shouldn't have to be decided on day one, and I suspect other clubs would be willing to do the same. Putting in the same rule as in the Irish Cup where the fixture location is reversed would encourage the home team to make the best efforts to play the first game if at all possible.

I think the efforts of North Down and Brigade should be commended and in fact I think they back up my opinion that players at 2nd XI level in both the NCU and North West find this competition very worthwhile and enjoyable.

Perhaps too many different competitions Andy, especially for the senior teams and all the varying rules that accompany each!

Tricky enough to get a league programme & one cup tournament fixture fulfilled per season in this current climate, let alone so many other ones that need to be played up and down the country!

Must be very difficult for the umpires to keep abreast of all rules & regulations ! Sterling effort never-the-less!!

But as the cook would say, 'too much water can spoil the broth'

Just back from Cregagh. This was my 5th game this year and each one with a different set of regulations. Premier League, Bob Kerr ISC, Club Turf, Challenge Cup & now Junior Cup. Anyone any thoughts on bringing some sense to this situation?

Aaron yes bowl outs r a pain what about a super over instead did you travel on sunday to strabane I hesr north down went to brigade and played as the groundsmen did a lot of work and both sets of players wanted to play as they wanted a game of cricket sometimes groundsnen could not be bothererd as it is the seconds and players either want to play or not

Question for umpires...
Under the Laws of Cricket, a keeper cannot take the ball in front of the stumps, but is there anything to stop the batsmans back foot of being behind this line?
(yes, I am watching the IPL)